Eru Chitanda
|anime debut = |occupation = High school student |class = 1-A → 2-H |clubs = Classics Club President |relatives = Tetsugo Chitanda (father) Shounosuke Chitanda (grandfather) Jun Sekitani (uncle) |seiyu = |english seiyu = Madeleine Morris |Gallery = Yes }} is the deuteragonist of Hyouka. She is a student of the Kamiyama High School and president of school's Classic Literature Club. Usually she is the one who gets the club involved into solving of the various mysteries. Biography Eru is the only daughter of a lineage of wealthy farmers known as the Chitanda family, of which appear to be quite well renowned. She graduated from Inji Middle School and enrolled to the Kamiyama High School[https://promo.kadokawa.co.jp/kotenbu/#character Koten-bu series description at Kadokawa official website]. Eru entered the Classics Club in attempt to recollect her last memory of her uncle, and incidentally, became the Club's president due to the club not retaining any members from the previous year. General Information Personality Eru Chitanda is very ladylike, polite, and cheerful. She is described as being sensible, emotive, friendly, and innocent, coming across as "childlike" in many aspects. Eru has a very positive demeanor and rarely seems to harbor negative emotions. Contrary to her well-behaved mannerisms, she can become compulsively nosy when intrigued; becoming hyperactive and having a tendency to glare and ignore personal space. Although easily distracted, Eru can become very focused on a particular subject, to a point of forgetting anything else not associated with it. She can be very persistent and stubborn, especially concerning mysteries, as she will not be able to stop thinking about it until she finally solves it. While being very skillful in cooking, she is vulnerable to alcohol and caffeine. Matcha milk is her favorite drink. Appearance Eru Chitanda is a shapely young girl that stands at 160 cm roughly (5'3") and weighs at 54 kg (119 lbs). She has mid-back length straight black hair that she sometimes wears in a rough high ponytail. Her bangs are cut straight across her forehead, just above her eyes. Chitanda's eyes are indigo-purple and are considered rather large; they tend to sparkle when intrigued. She is principally seen in the school uniform. When not in her school uniform, Eru wears somewhat loose fitting, "dainty" clothing. Satoshi Fukube says that Eru is considered a stunning beauty . Plot Reviving the Classics Club At the first day of the new school term, Eru meets Houtarou Oreki at the school's Geography Prep Room, which serves as clubroom for the Classics Club. After a short dialogue, Eru and Houtarou stumble upon a mystery case waiting to be solved. After Houtarou solves the mystery of Eru being locked down in the clubroom, Eru becomes attached to him. However, this attachment endangers Houtarou's "energy-saving" lifestyle, because Eru's requets to solve more mysteries, which sparkle her curiosity. other cases would quell her curiosity. The Classics Club, now composed of Houtarou, his friend Satoshi Fukube, and Eru herself, begins work at new issue of yearly anthology of the Classics Club, called Hyōka . After much difficulty, they traced back an archive of Hyōka past issues in the Biology Prep Room. In the process, discovery triggered a memory of Eru. She discusses this later with Houtarou the following weekend. The Case of Jun Sekitani The three members of the Classics Club, with Houtarou's childhood friend Mayaka Ibara tagging along, retrace the steps of history leading to a series of events that happened 45 years into the past involving Eru's uncle Jun Sekitani and the reason for the term "Kanya Festival" being considered as taboo at school. The efforts of the Classics Club soon paid off, and Eru tearfully recalls the reason why she cried as a young girl when she listened to the story featured in the Hyouka of 45 years ago from her uncle. In turn, they also understood the meaning behind the name "Hyouka" and used their findings in publishing the newest issue of the Hyouka anthology. In order to reward the Classics Club for its acheivements in the Jun Sekitani case, Eru brings the club to the nearby Zaizen village for a short vacation, and they stayed for free at Seizansou, hot spring inn owned by Mayaka's relatives. In their short stay, they discover a mystery involving a ghost sighting in a closed room in the inn. Houtarou later debunks the ghost story to the Classics Club, but allowed the story to persist. Kamiyama High School Festival Preparations for the Kamiyama High School Festival, also called as Kanya-sai among the student body, go underway, and Eru receives an invitation from her senior Fuyumi Irisu to review an amateur film made by Class 2-F. Unlike the other members of the Classic Club who clearly see the problems of the film, Eru is shown to be hooked into the film, and even more so when a new mystery case involving the missing end for the film shows up. She then joins the club in consulting three of the film's crew members and was able to formulate her own ideas of the ending. However, during the long consultation session, Eru ends up getting drunk from eating too much brandy chocolate, and was unable to contribute her thoughts the next day, when Houtarou decides on an ending for the movie. Eru returns to school at the day of the showing of Class 2-F's film and later voices her surprise at the ending chosen for the film. Unsurprisingly, she confronted Houtarou about his decisions in her absence. The Kamiyama Festival officially begins, and the club is suddenly pressed with the task of selling 200 copies of the latest Hyouka anthology. In order to help in selling the anthology in the festival, Eru spends the rest of the festival going around the different clubs, and has her pictures taken, has visited the Newspaper Club, has been interviewed by the Broadcasting Club, and even asked help from Irisu to sell a portion of the anthology for a profit. It did not take long before Eru and the Classics Club were tangled into a chain of disappearances involving random items, and the club boldly took up the challenge of a so-called "Jumonji", only to become a victim itself. Houtarou mostly handled the case, as well as its connections with the Student Council President, while Eru celebrates for having sold out the anthology. Blossoming Relationships On the weeks following the Kamiyama High School Festival, both Eru and Houtarou underwent changes to their personality. Eru has started to rely on Houtarou more when it comes to even the littlest curiosity, while Houtarou, no longer the energy-saving boy of before, slowly builds patience and initiative when a new mystery shows up. Their bond eventually culminates with Eru personally inviting Houtarou to various occasions such as her uncle's funeral, New Year's Day and the town's Doll Festival, where Houtarou assumes a vital role along with Eru herself. After the festival, Eru asks Houtarou if he could help in handling the Chitanda family business alongside her. Eru was unable to get a response as Houtarou was once more haunted by the risks of living a rose-colored life. Relationships Houtarou Oreki Eru Chitanda greatly admires Oreki's talents and skills. In addition, she trusts Oreki and believes he has the ability to solve any mystery. As a result, Oreki is often forced to appease to Eru's rabid curiosity by solving various mysteries Eru drags him into, despite his reluctance. Chitanda has consistently managed to persuade Oreki into helping her at any given time without fail. Despite being usually quiet and polite, she is very forward with Oreki when she is looking to him to appease her curiosity. She will often put her face unusually close to his when declaring her curiosity. Mayaka Ibara Chitanda quickly becomes close friends with Mayaka and Mayaka frequently refers to her by her nickname, "Chi-chan." At one point, Eru helps Mayaka, when making some homemade chocolate for Satoshi and was as devastated as the chocolate vanished. Satoshi Fukube She maintains a friendly relationship with Satoshi, who constantly helps her convince Houtarou into solving the mystery at hand. However, since she has met Satoshi and his friends just recently, Eru is often left out when an issue between Satoshi and his childhood friends erupts. Fuyumi Irisu Irisu is Chitanda's upperclassman. They are on good terms and seem to be good friends, although Irisu comments that Eru struggles in making others do her bidding. Kaho Jūmonji Kaho is a close acquaintance of Eru's. Primarily, their familiarity stemmed from the social obligations between the Chitanda and Juumonji families. During New Year's Eve, the Chitanda family makes sure to bring presents to the Juumonji family. Quotes *''"I'm curious, I can't stop thinking about it!"'' *''"I wanted you to see it."'' *''"That's because you've never taken a close look at yourself."'' *''"His brain, I feel like i want to open it up and take a peek inside."'' *''"I find myself hard to understand sometimes"'' *''"I like to avoid getting tired"'' Gallery :See Eru Chitanda/Gallery Trivia *Surprisingly, by her first year's mid-term test, Chitanda is ranked sixth in her year. She is often called "top student". *She apparently has a good sense of hearing and smell, as she is able to hear and smell things that other characters are unable to. *She is very meticulous, seeing details other people might fail to see. *She has excellent night vision, as she claims in episode 20. *She has not read mystery novel for years, as claimed by herself. *She is good at cooking. *Her seiyuu, Satomi Sato, together with Satoshi Fukube's seiyuu, Daisuke Sakaguchi, sung "Update Go Issho ni" and "Itsuka Bokura no Epilogue" in Hyouka Net Radio "Kotenbu no Kuttaku" Theme song CD. *Houtarou specified her as The Fool of the tarot card. *Like many other anime girls (and some guys), Eru entered Saimoe Contests and also won the champion title for the International Saimoe League 2015. **To see her result, visit here: http://saimoe.wikia.com/wiki/Chitanda_Eru * During the Kanya Festival, she was shown on the photo that Chitanda was wearing a Penguin Costume while she's on a pictorial session on the Photography Club. Her Costume might be a reference to J.C.Staff's anime , in which Chiyo, a high school girl who has pigtails, shown also in a Penguin Costume as a mascot during the festival. * Besides Sekitani Jun, two more relatives of Eru were mentioned in the light novel series; Shounosuke Chitanda (grandfather) in volume 3 and Tetsugo Chitanda (father) in volume 4. However, only Tetsugo was mentioned in the anime series. * Eru is very sensitive to both caffeine and alcohol. She got drunk after eating almost a whole box of whisky chocolates, and she stated that she is unable to sleep after drinking coffee. References Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Students Category:Classics Club